2025 REGISTRATION IS OPEN!
Create Space: Art and Its Potential to Heal is a workshop experience immersed in art, nature, and playful curiosity.
Working with both traditional and non-traditional art materials, we will focus on developing curiosity, opening ourselves to new possibilities for well-being.
Set in 300-acres of beautiful land in West-Virginia, the natural setting and large indoor spaces for hands-on experimentation give us the room to grow! Creative art practices can support looking at the world in new ways, being present, and creating deeper engagement with one’s self and with others.
This workshop is perfect for caretakers, teachers, art practitioners, or anyone curious about new ways to play.
ThemesCreative Play: We will explore hands-on art making in order to build our curiosity and willingness to explore the world in new ways, asking new questions and finding new pathways. The focus is on experimentation, not mastery.
Living in Community: A week dedicated to exploring the possibilities of communal living.
Art and Healing: Art can give us the tools to see the world differently, bring something into the world that has never existed, make changes in the world or in ourselves, appreciate the present, experience all of our senses, experience flow, learn new things about the world and about ourselves. These aspects of art are available for everyone and provide opportunities for greater quality of life, healing, and self-advocacy.
Nature Experiences: We will walk on one or more beautiful wooded trails and visit the Gesundheit waterfall, engage in forest bathing and focus on the wisdom of nature.
Art Activities: We will try a number of methods and materials, both outside and inside. We will explore visual art materials like paint, mark-making tools, found objects, paper, clay, costume as well as sound and performance. We will be flexible and move with the flow of participant’s curiosities and interests. There will be space for both group and individual activities, as well as opportunities to continue working on any project or idea.
Facilitators and presenters include:
Rachel Kessler — Rachel Kessler is a long time visual artist and a nationally recognized workshop facilitator for adults in caring fields. She is focused on meaningful engagement, creative play, and the appreciation of nature and community. She currently resides in Portland Oregon.
You are! This workshop is perfect for caretakers, teachers, art practitioners, or anyone curious about new ways to play.
Early Bird Price | $850. Price increases to $925 after April 1st. This covers tuition, room, board and transportation pick up & return. Scholarships are not available. Be Prepared to pay your $200 deposit to confirm your participation.
Where? | The program takes place on the Gesundheit Institute’s 320 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with mountain trails, waterfalls, extensive gardens, and a lake. Gesundheit’s project-in-progress is a unique model of holistic health care that will serve as an inspiration for us to coax each other to dream big—in our personal lives, in our community involvement, and in our contributions to global peace and justice
Facilities | Gesundheit lays on a pristine tract of farm and mountain land in rural West Virginia. The dacha, with its onion domes and Russian architecture, serves as a residence and meeting place, and has won awards for its unique design.
Meeting Spaces | Gesundheit Institute offers many unique meeting spaces and classrooms. There are quiet spaces for meditation or study and large rooms to house workshops and classes. Gesundheit hosts events focused on education—at the site of the future hospital and elsewhere.
Accommodations | Accommodations are in dormitory-style group settings. There are laundry machines at Gesundheit that you can use. We offer very slow WIFI (cannot download, cannot use skype, sorry!). Clean sheets and towels are provided.
Travel | Gesundheit staff will shuttle people to and from the train station in White Sulphur Springs and the airport in Lewisburg on the first and last day of the course.
⇒ If you would like to sponsor a tuition please reach out.
2025 REGISTRATION IS OPEN!
Space for this course is limited. We register participants on a first come first serve basis and Gesundheit! courses are known to fill up quickly. If you would like to participate, here’s how:
Registration consists of 2 parts.
We look forward to having you in this beautiful community on the land this summer. Blessings.
Contact is Rachel Kessler: rachelkesslerstudio@
Gesundheit hosts events focused on education—at the site of the future hospital and elsewhere.
Gesundheit offers an inspiring natural environment, sleeping arrangements, meeting spaces...
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